Show Summary Details

Page of


date: 03 August 2020

Abstract and Keywords

This article examines Nietzsche’s notion of a drive. It addresses three main questions: first, what is a drive? Second, what type of awareness do we have when we are being moved by a drive? Third, what is the relationship between being moved by a drive and reflectively choosing to perform an action? A drive is a disposition that lead agents to evaluative orientation. Drives manifest themselves by structuring the agent’s perceptions, affects, and reflective thought. Drives do not simply arise in response to external stimuli; they actively seek opportunities for expression, sometimes distorting the agent’s perception of the environment in order to incline the agent to act in ways that give the drives expression.

Keywords: drive, human action, morality, action, disposition, Friedrich Nietzsche


Please subscribe or login to access full text content.

